Thin-vertising

February 16, 2010 @ 11:19 am

Can we use clever advertising to inspire people toward healthy living. Sometimes they're funny and meant to sell a product. Sometimes they're purely educational. I'd like to see more of these kinds of campaigns to inspire people to make just a few small changes to improve their health. Here's a few ads I've saved along the way.

0 comments | Topics: advertising, obesity

Things I Never Want To Hear Again

February 12, 2010 @ 01:33 pm

You know those phrases that are just automatic? Or things that people say to say something nice? It's amazing how often a person can hear the same ones over and over again. As I lose weight, here are the ones I hope some day I never have to hear again.

"Hey, Big Guy!"  ...  i have a name you know. You can say "Hey, [name]!" You can say "Hey, Buddy."  But why must people use this phrase thinking it's innocuous. Why equate a body type to a person's moniker? I don't go around saying "Hey, Big Nose!" or "Hey, Patchy Facial Hair!" So stop calling me Big Guy ... I'm only 5'9".

"You have an handsome face."  ... Yeah, yeah. We know what that means. "As long as I look at you through this spent toilet paper roll, you're stunning!"

"At least you stay warmer in the winter."  ... Actually, no. I'm just as cold as anyone else in the snow. More fat - more surface area to expose to the elements. And my coat doesn't really close around me.

"Pardon me for asking, but how much do you weight?"  ... Very few people ask a fat man how much he weighs, but some have to. Like the stable-master who needs to make sure I won't break her horse's back. I never want someone to have to look at me and be required to ask for the sake of mine or others' safety.

2 comments | Topics: annoyances, obesity

Mapping Obesity's Spread for 20 Years

February 10, 2010 @ 10:31 am

Just to put things a little in perspective, this map from CNN (I saved this a couple years ago and just now found it again to post it here) shows the BMI calculations for the US between 1985 and 2006. Once upon a time obesity was highly rare - today, it's the norm. No one can say we don't have a problem. Click the picture to view the interactive map.

0 comments | Topics: obesity

Fatties and the People Who Hate Them

February 3, 2010 @ 10:38 am

I recently posted about a phenomenon of some who are attracted to fat people. I don't really like people being attracted to me because I'm fat.  But at the same time, I don't want people to judge me - or any other obese or overweight person - on the basis of this one burden, either. There is a stigma attached to obesity that we cannot escape as long as we are fat. And yet we consistently have to deal with people who hate us because we're fat. But this is an attitude that is pervasive throughout - perhaps even intertwined with - our American culture.

The majority of people don't like fat people.  To be perfectly honest, I cringe when I see fat people be it on TV or walking down the street. My cringe is a mix of pity, regret, worry, and a sense that our country's in trouble. But I know what being obese is like - I know how hard it is, how much we struggle, and I empathize with my fellow fatties. Others? They don't even bother. For many people being fat is not merely a sign of weakness, it's an opportunity to dehumanize others. To them, we are lazy, incompetent, have nothing worthwhile to offer, are bad role models, and are generally subhuman. At best we are to be ignored, at worst ridiculed or abused. Fat people are denied jobs, denied respect, no matter how good they may be at something.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a health nut at age 70. So much so, that:

He does find time, at least twice a week, to slip on a pair of black Lycra stretch pants to do yoga with Landra at their apartment in the Ritz-Carlton. He has an intolerance for fat people, manifested in asides to aides who seem to be getting portly and an office staff that is suspiciously slim.¹

Former presidential candidate and patriarch of the modern political scandal John Edwards was no fan of his larger constituencies. In his book about his former boss Andrew Young points "portrays Edwards as preening and arrogant, an Atkins dieter who hated making campaign stops at state fairs where 'fat rednecks try to shove food down my face.'" ²

Or take this offensive, misogynistic, judgmental and vapid exchange between Faux News' Neil Cavuto and the bombastic self-described "chubbie-ist" (as in "racist") Michael Karolchyk (who founded an offensive and completely misguided gym in Denver).  In it, they're questioning whether the then-nominee for Surgeon General (she now holds the position) was too fat for the job:

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0 comments | Topics: discrimination, obesity, shame

Fatties and the Chasers Who Love Them

February 1, 2010 @ 10:15 am

This is a weird post for me to write. On the one hand, there's people's personal preferences and I am not one to judge those. On the other hand, there's an element of embarrassment for me in it. And I don't speak for the world here, I don't speak for other fat people. And I'm probably going to ramble a bit. But here goes.

I know guys who are into me because I'm obese. They're attracted to fat. And while it's always flattering to have someone attracted to you, at the same time it makes me feel awful.

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0 comments | Topics: obesity, relationships

Because I Don't Want to Abandon Ship Anymore

January 22, 2010 @ 11:46 am

"Gee, so and so has let themselves go..."

No one's ever said that about me because I was never ... well what's the opposite of letting go? Holding tight? I was never holding tight? That doesn't really work. Anyway, not the point. But for a great part of my life I did let myself go in a lot of ways beyond my weight because I just didn't care. I didn't like myself, I wasn't happy, I didn't enjoy day to day life. So why bother trying?

At my worst, my self-esteem and self-respect was so low that I didn't care about anything in my life. Not my hygiene, not the cleanliness of my house or my clothes. I didn't care about my health (obviously). I let problems persist until they were simply too big to be ignored any longer. I didn't care to shower every day, or even brush my teeth. The kitchen was a wreck, the fridge stank of spoiled food, a year's worth of mail piled up on the counter, dust bunnies ruled the wild west. Laundry was for emergencies, only. And ironing was a fool's errand.

Is it any wonder that when you watch the TLC "World's Fattest So-and-So" shows you see people living in squalor? The lack of self-respect that both fuels obesity and is caused by obesity extends beyond the body and into the daily "life" of those of us who lose control. One could explain away the filth by saying obesity makes it harder to keep things in order - but you know what? I was just lazy. I just. didn't. care.  My obesity isn't so grand that I can't function or move, I'm actually pretty active when I want to be. I just didn't want to be.

I didn't want to experience life. I didn't think I had the right to. I didn't respect myself enough to lose weight so why should I respect myself or my life or my home in any other way?

Obesity makes me lazy. It makes me filthy. And people see that; even if they can't point to it they can sense when someone just doesn't care about themselves. And so we move through a day without anyone caring - because if we don't care about ourselves we're not apt to inspire anyone to care about us on our behalf.  So I'm committed to this journey so that I can gain the energy and encouragement to respect myself in all ways beyond weight.

0 comments | Topics: depression, laziness, obesity, self-respect

Shame On Nutella

January 20, 2010 @ 02:30 pm

Advertisers have a field day with the TV show, The Biggest Loser. Everybody wants to be healthy, everybody wants to be sexier, so any product that remotely inspires health and wellness wants to be attached to this show somehow. The product placements are one thing - we'll assume that the trainers aren't going to risk their reputations shilling something they think is crap. But what of the advertisements - the old fashioned commercials.  Those are a completely different ball game, and during those two hours on Tuesday, I'm amazed at the bald-faced spin some products are able to manage. For most of them, it's just being smart.

For at least one of them, it's not spin - it's downright misleading if you ask me, and it's products like this, being falsely advertised like this, that has contributed to the obesity epidemic we're facing. Here's the ad.

As a mom, I'm a great believer in Nutella, a delicious hazelnut spread that I use to get my kids to eat healthy foods. I spread a little on all kinds of healthy things like multigrain toast. Every jar has wholesome, quality ingredients, like hazelnuts, skim milk, and a hint of delicious cocoa. And Nutella has no artificial colors or preservatives. It's quick, it's easy, and at breakfast I can use all the help I can get. Nutella. Breakfast never tasted this good.

Here's the thing. Nutella is delicious. It is in no way healthy, and they don't even claim that it is. Here's the nutritional info pop-up. In only two tablespoons you're getting almost 200 calories and a fifth of the fat you should have in a day. And you know that on any given piece of bread a person is likely to slather more than just two tablespoons (I sure did!). What's more ... there are 21 grams of sugars in that two tablespoons.  Any guess how much 21 grams of sugar is equal to? About two tablespoons. The stuff is 100% sugar (more or less).

Look at the ingredients, expertly broken down at obesitypanacea.com. The first ingredient is sugar. The second ingredient is palm oil, which is high in palmitic acid and linked to cardiovascular disease. Half the calories are from sugar, most of the other half are from fat, and only 4% are from protein.

And they want you to think it's a healthy part of a balanced breakfast.

It's ads like this one, strategically placed in the middle of a show about health, that lead people to think clearly unhealthy gunk like Nutella is actually good for them. And so they buy it. And then they do what the commercials says - spread it on healthy things like toast (or sandwiches or vegetables), completely neutralizing any healthfulness of that "healthy thing." It's like scene from The Simpsons when Homer goes on a diet, so Marge gives him rice cakes. Complaining there's no taste, she tells him, "you can put a little something on top for flavor." So he does:


I find some of the crap the Food Industry has laden the American public with is pretty abhorrent. They have little interest in actually promoting healthy eating behaviors. They want you to eat their products. So they capitalize on whatever the current movement it. The Low-Fat crazes that filled us with High Fructose Corn Syrup and poor nutritional quality. The High-Protein crazes that lead to all manner of products. And in shows like Biggest Loser they spin their unhealthy products in ways that are downright misleading.

They've been doing it for decades, and in my opinion it's a major factor in what's gotten our country to where it is.

Nutella ads have been taken off the air elsewhere in the world for this very reason - uproar at their misleading nature. They should be here, too, especially in the middle of a show that is supposed to be inspiring people to better themselves, not dig themselves an early, hazlenut-cocoa slathered grave.

0 comments | Topics: The Biggest Loser, advertising, obesity